Blog

- Moments in a life of a Northern planktonologist -

Author: Satu Zwerver

I just registered for the symposium "Restoration of eutrophic lakes: Current practices and future challenges". This will be held 4.-6. June 2018 in Lahti, Finland.
Lahti-city lies on the shore of the lake Vesijärvi (= Waterlake, sometimes one doubts on the ability of the Finns to come up with original names for things), one of the most closely studied lakes in Finland. After suffering from heavy eutrofication some 40 years ago it now is very well recovered. A fine place for this symposium indeed. Take a look at the short history of the lake on the video "The story of a lucky Lake", a vide...

Just followed a webinar from Zeiss:
Basics and Significant Applications of 3D X-ray microscopy (XRM).
What a wonderful world of excellent 3-dimensional pictures!! What a fine details! No staining needed. No dissecting. And still you get really detailed, clear 3-dimensional pictures.
Bubbling with ideas what one could do with this technology and plankton...
Take a look: https://www.zeiss.com/microscopy/us/local/campaign/what-is-x-ray-microscopy.html#whitepaper
Picture from https://www.zeiss.com/content/dam/Microscopy/us/img/Content%20Images/application/XRM/3d-x-ray-microscopy-101...

The future is here!
Got a news mail from The Freshwater blog:
MARS-project (Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress) will have an on-line 3-day conference (19.-21. September) on The Future of Water Management in Europe: Reviewing WFD Implementation.
This they write: "The aim of this e-Conference is to gather constructive and practical suggestions from the scientific community for the improved monitoring and management of waters across Europe and ideas for more effective implementation of the Water Framework Directive.
...
A number of keynote speaker...

Last week I spent on the island of Seili, near Turku (Finland).
Together with Prof. emeritus Ilppo Vuorinen teaching an eager, international group of people how to identify and count zooplankton and how to use the microscopes. The course was organized by the university of Turku, The Archipelago Research Institute at their research station.
I am looking forward to the next time!

Now there is a great chance to learn to know our little friends living under the surface of the Baltic Sea - zooplankton. Take a look at this course organized by the university of Turku, Finland:
Training course on zooplankton identification.
Together with Prof. emeritus Ilppo Vuorinen and Doc. emerita Marjut Rajasilta I will be guiding you through this interesting subject, leaning on my more than 15 years of experience on counting zooplankton.
You can also follow the project on Research gate.

A new algae site has seen the light: Diatom Flora of Britain and Ireland.
Looks nice and solid. Much information about the morphology and very nice pictures. Major part of them clear black and white photos of prepared, cleaned frustules. I would have expected more photos with chloroplasts though, knowing Eileen Cox is involved. She did write a whole book back in 1996 about the inner life of the diatoms - giving us algae counters valuable information on how to use chloroplasts in identifying diatoms in our chloroplast containing samples.
At the moment there is almost 200 records and...

Today the programming of the new, visual phytoplankton key started. New approach, both to content and illustration, should make a change. I can see a whole new generation of plankton identifiers clapping their hands eagerly.
Although more and more identification work is taken over by DNA-specialists and automatised analysis, there is still need for good old-fashioned identification work. Here is a thing coming that makes it more easy to get a hold of the fascinating art of identifying algae. And other organisms, by the way.
Programming is in the competent hands of Startle Company Oy, I s...

Today a new version of the Water Map of Finland was published.
One can see a particular water, or over a larger area. Like the island of Kemiö:
If you choose to see the ecological status of the waters, you get this:
Yellow means "moderate" status. The Archipelago Sea is not feeling well. And that we all know, who live near by.
Only 5 lakes have any kind of ecological status on the island of Kemiö. Maybe when the next Ecological-program of the municipality will get running, we will get the rest of the lakes evaluated as well.
Lake Dragsfjärden has also status moderate, which s...